Ms Moninne Griffith:

I am the executive director of BeLonG To, Ireland’s national organisation for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and non-binary, LGBTI+, young people aged from 14 to 23. We have been supporting young LGBTI+ people since we opened our doors 15 years ago in Dublin. Today we provide specialist youth services in Dublin, including peer support groups, one-to-one support, in-house counselling with our partners in Pieta House and street outreach. We also support a national network of more than 30 LGBTI+ youth groups throughout Ireland and we run Stand Up, the largest anti-bullying campaign in second level schools nationally, with the support of the Department of Education and Skills and many other education partners. This is now in its eighth year, and last year 43% of schools participated.

BeLonG To also works with the Government and other partners so that Ireland will be safe, equal and welcoming for LGBTI+ young people. This includes our work with the Department of Educations and Skills on the development of Growing Up LGBT, which is part of the SPHE-RSE curriculum. Most recently we have been working with the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Katherine Zappone, and her Department in the development of the world’s first LGBTI+ youth strategy. We have also been working with the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Deputy Regina Doherty, and her Department on a review of the Gender Recognition Act 2015. In this review, the issue of feeling unsafe or not belonging in schools was highlighted time and again by the young people and stakeholders consulted.

Ireland changed what it means to grow up LGBTI+ in 2015 with a resounding "Yes" in the marriage equality referendum and with the Gender Recognition Act 2015. There is still much work to be done, however, to create an Ireland where LGBTI+ young people are free from discrimination and stigma. Recent Irish research confirms BeLonG To’s experience from our front-line work with young people that anti-LGBTI+ stigma results in significantly higher mental health challenges for young LGBTI+ people. We have seen a doubling in the number of young people in crisis who have come to our services in recent years, especially those who are under 18. Our dedicated youth workers and our resilience programmes are working all-out to meet that need.

The LGBT Ireland report, published in 2016, found that 56% of LGBTI+ people between the ages of 14 and 18 had self-harmed, 70% had suicidal thoughts and one in three had attempted suicide. The report showed a link between a young person having experienced anti-LGBTI+ bullying, social exclusion and fear of rejection with serious mental health difficulties. Some 67% of those in school now or in past five years witnessed anti-LGBTI+ bullying and 50% had experienced it themselves.

We know from the young people we work with that shame, mixed messaging and, too often, silence surround the areas of gender, sexuality and relationships in many classrooms across Ireland. Irish young people receive inadequate information relating to sexuality, safe sex, STIs, consent and reproduction. In many schools young people receive incomplete or no information on being LGBTI+ at all, despite Growing up LGBT being part of the SPHE and RSE curriculum. In short, what they are telling us is that many of them feel unsafe to be themselves in school, afraid to come out, afraid of the consequences, unwelcome and that they do not belong in our schools. Just last week, I heard the story of a young transgender person in school who was thrown down the stairs. In the changing rooms after PE they were thrown into the showers and the water was turned on just because they are transgender.

Back in 2015, Ireland said "Yes" to marriage equality. BeLonG To is now calling for our education system to say "Yes" to the inclusion of LGBTI+ identities in a real and meaningful way. On behalf of all the young people, parents and teachers whom we work with, we are advocating for a school system where every young person has access to scientifically factual, up-to-date information about sexuality, sexual orientation, gender identity, STIs, safe sex, and consent. Learning about these topics is an essential life skill and vital to realising young people’s right to health and well-being.

We are calling for an update of the Growing up LGBT RSE resources, which I believe is under way; integration of this Growing Up LGBT material into the main SPHE-RSE curriculum; the provision to teachers of further training on how to teach Growing up LGBT to build their confidence and capacity to cover these issues; the inclusion of LGBTI+ identities across all subjects to create visibility and highlight role models for young LGBTI people; the timetabling of RSE lessons in every school which would include Growing up LGBT; the resourcing of the Safe and Supportive Schools programme developed by HSE and BeLonG To so that it can be rolled out in second level schools nationally; the increasing of resources to reach more schools as part of Stand Up anti-bullying campaign and the provision of substitute cover to enable all teachers to attend the training; the resourcing of Alltogether Now developed by St Patrick’s College in DCU and BeLonG To so that is can be rolled out in fifth and sixth classes in primary schools nationally; and the inclusion of Growing Up LGBT and anti-bullying programmes in whole-school

inspections